Rubber Ducky

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Quick Specs

Editors' Review

This cleverly designed and free application monitors system activities to help you troubleshoot slow performance but doesn't get into specifics. The interface is a small yet colorful animated aquarium that hovers above your system-tray clock. Themed elements indicate certain computer-related activities. For instance, water level and color represent memory usage. Fish indicate inbound and outbound network traffic, plants show hard disk activity, and bubbles stand for CPU usage. When you right click the interface, you'll see a list explaining what all of the graphical elements stand for. However, Rubber Ducky can't tell you what information is being received by your computer or identify open applications that are sucking resources, meaning you'll still need to do some sleuthing to solve system- performance issues. And aside from the ability to tweak the transparency of the interface, the program lacks in-depth customization options. Any user looking for an animated display of system activity will appreciate this freeware, especially those with some system savvy.

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Publisher's Description

Rubber Ducky is a cute little aquarium display that sits neatly above your system tray. The elements of the aquarium monitor the state of your computer--fish for network traffic, plants for hard disk, bubbles for CPU usage, and water level/color for RAM usage. Whenever your system experiences a slow-down, just take a quick glance at Rubber Ducky and you will know what is holding it up at a single glance.

SO LONG AS YOU REMEMBER HOW TO CORRECTLY READ ALL IT'S READINGS, IT'S QUITE USEFUL!
ALL IT'S FISHIES SWIMMING INWARD IN COMBO WITH IT'S SEA-WEED ACTIVITY, COULD BE QUITE AN IMPORTANT PROCESS TO NOTE!

Cons

IT'S TOO BAD THAT THE BOX (little as it is), ALWAYS SEEMS TO GET IN THE WAY OF SOMETHING OR ANOTHER.
IT WOULD BE NICER IF IT COULD BE SET TO STAY OFF SCREEN AND ONLY POP-UP WHEN A MAJOR CHANGE HAPPENS.

Summary

OVERALL, I CAN NOT SEE REMOVING IT NOW THAT I'VE BECOME USED TO IT. AFTERALL, IT DOES DO THE JOB OF INFORMING ME OF USEFUL INFO, AND DOES SO SEEMINGLY WELL.
I'D PREFER A NON-ANIMATED READ-OUT OF SUCH, WITH STANDARD FIGURE READINGS, HOWEVER I'LL GLADLY KEEP THIS LITTLE JEWEL UNTIL I FIND A BETTER CHOICE.
(BUT THEN I'LL MISS BEING ABLE TO PRODUCE IT'S RUBBER-DUCKY VERSION OF "Quack,Quack",, WHICH TURNS THE HEADS OF ALL WHO ARE IN THE ROOM!)

different animations tell you what is running and how many resources it's using. I uses waves, Different colors of the water, numbers of fish and water height to let you know each individual resource is being used.

Cons

I heard from an IT Tech it is a useless program which uses up your memory needlessly. I personally don't see any difference but I am working with 2GB of Ram for memory.

Summary

Try it out, it's worth it if you want to get an idea of why your computer is running slow at times. It leaves very little behind upon uninstalling.

Only a rough graphic indication of system state, but often enough to diagnose a problem

Summary

I fix a lot of computers, and put this on all the kids and not too savvy users systems. Then they can call me and tell me the duck drowned, the water's dirty or whatever. Sometimes I can help them fix things right over the phone. For more advanced users, I recommend tinyresmeter.

Its small, and i can simply look at it to see why my computer is running slow (usually Ram) I can keep on top of performance without having to look at Task manager every ten minutes! The always on top and transparency features are also very good

Cons

The annoying rubber duck squeek sound when you click on it, this can be removed in the program directory and is replaced by the default windows sound - so its nothing major

It reminds me to use the "smart clean" or "deep clean" tools from Advanced Windows Care and that's what it is for - a way to see when you need to release memory from the stupid programs that don't release memory when they close - a long time Windows "leak".

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